Second First Meetings
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·Half Prince· "Min Gui Wen, this is our health clinic's physician, Li Tian Lang." ·Spoilers·
1. Recognition

**Summary:** "Min Gui Wen, this is our health clinic's physician, Li Tian Lang."

Set during the weeks spent training in chapter seven, before the tournament.

Spoilers for the sidestory/omake at the end of volume four.

* * *

**Second First Meetings**

By Dark Ice Dragon**  
**

Recognition

* * *

The university was all right, Gui Wen conceded as he was given a tour around it. It could have been worse, but it wasn't as if he had held any expectations of the institution.

It was actually quite accessible from his house, which was nice.

"And that concludes our tour," his tour guide, Wu Cheung, said cheerfully. "Are there any questions you'd like to ask?"

_'How many days will I have off?' _But he'd find that out soon enough once he had received his timetable. Before he could shake his head, Wu had started waving at someone behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see a tall, brown-haired man walking towards them.

"I showed you where the health clinic was but our physician wasn't there," Wu said apologetically.

The physician was staring at him. It wasn't like how Prince had stared at him, the first time they'd met – and he really shouldn't be thinking about Second Life when he wasn't playing it. Second Life was where he could not think about real life and it should be vice versa. It was less chance of the physician being a homo, and it was more probable that he recognised him, what with his reputation.

"Min Gui Wen, this is our health clinic's physician, Li Tian Lang," Wu introduced them.

"Gui?" Li echoed, eyebrows raised slightly.

He frowned. "Yes?"

Li blinked, and then shook his head. "Never mind."

They talked for a little while longer, about general things, he said his goodbyes and then he was commuting back home.

xOx

"Gui?" Gui Wen raised his head from the book he was reading to see who it was, but there was only one person who called him by that name. He'd noticed over the few times they'd bumped into each other in the university, Li would sometimes slip and call him that; the frequency had begun to decrease though.

He'd barely opened his mouth before Li was speaking again, correcting himself.

"Ah, I mean, 'Guileastos'?"

Whatever it was he'd wanted to say, he didn't know what it was anymore as his mind blanked on him. How...? Gui Wen carefully studied the other man's face, but he couldn't place whether he recognised him or not. Maybe he was someone who'd seen him as he played, but they hadn't actually talked to each other. But then, wouldn't Li be calling him 'Guileastos', not 'Gui'?

"You don't recognise me, do you?" Li asked him, humour colouring his tone. The other man pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down.

The way Li was saying it, it was as if he _should _know who he was in Second Life. He stared for a little longer, but Li still didn't look familiar. "...No, I don't."

"My screen name's Ugly Wolf."

That... was unexpected. Gui Wen leaned back, looking at Li as a whole rather than just his features, and tried to slot in what he knew about Wolf and how that compared to the little he knew of Li. Wolf was a Beast, so that would explain why he wouldn't recognise him – what he had left to go by was body language and speech mannerisms, and even then, he was proof alone that how a person spoke in real life could be extremely different from how a person spoke in the game. Li was certainly tall enough to be Wolf, but again, that was something that could be changed easily when you were a Beast. The way Li was sitting, it _was_like how Wolf did, but that wasn't something that could be used as concrete evidence that they were the same person.

Li chuckled, putting a hand on the table. "We first met when you pulled the Zombie King back to me and Prince, and the day after that, we spent about an hour trying to agree on a name for our team." What he'd said, only the members of Odd Squad could have known - unless someone had been stalking them for a long while. "If you could call it 'agreeing' on Odd Squad since you weren't allowed that much input," he added. Li scratched the side of his chin, eyes raised as he thought. _That _was something he was used to seeing from Wolf. "Hmm. There are other stories I can tell you." His head tilted down and looked at him. "Have I convinced you yet, or should I tell you them as well?"

He was mostly convinced; he could see small echoes of Wolf in Li, but, what were the chances that he would meet someone he knew in Second Life in real life? He shook his head to Li's question. "It just seems... unlikely that I'd meet anyone from the game."

Li waved a hand in agreement. "I know what you mean – I wasn't sure it was you because you were so different from Gui."

_'So diff-'_ Gui Wen's thoughts halted as the realisation of what a person from Second Life actually knowing him _meant_. Guileastos was a homo, a blatant homo in Second Life – if people took that as a sign –

"_Gui,_" Li said firmly, bringing his attention back to him.

He'd dropped his book on the table, it having slipped from his limp fingers. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest, but his face was cold, he could feel it. "I'm not – I'm _not_-!"

Li interrupted his panicked stuttering. "It's a _game_, Gui. People play it to get away from real life-"

"Or to do things they can't normally do or _show_," he stressed. Li probably thought that he was hiding the fact that he was homosexual, and that Gui was the _real _Gui Wen.

"Gui," Li sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You're saying this to a person who plays as a bipedal wolf, and is married to someone in a game." He looked him in the eyes, almost smiling. "You haven't seen me when I'm near any women, have you?"

"But that isn't-"

"Isn't it? In Second Life, you're playing a role; maybe how you _really_ want to act _or_ to _have fun_." Li ignored the protests Gui Wen tried to make, talking over him and not stopping. "How you spend your free time is your business, and it's not as if you're hurting anyone – just the opposite, since you're the one who keeps getting beaten up afterwards," he said.

He wasn't threatening to expose his 'secret', or do any sort of action against him and he was trying to calm him down instead. That… was the Wolf he knew. Gui Wen shrugged, muttering, "It doesn't hurt _that_ much and, it's... funny seeing how Prince reacts." He had an IQ of two-hundred and that was _still _the best explanation he could come up with?

Li tilted his head, his small smile growing fond. "He seems to find it cathartic, doesn't it?"

A puff of air escaped from him before he could stop it. "I've noticed." His fingers started playing with the edge of the book as he remembered some of those memories. He sighed, bringing his attention back to the present. "I still don't understand – the way I act on Second Life, it isn't acceptable; shouldn't you be..."

Li was shaking his head to what he was saying. "If I was – if _any _of us in Odd Squad were disgusted by the way you act in Second Life, why do we keep playing with you?"

The question made him pause. "There's less repercussions if you associate with me there," he argued. But that didn't sound right to him. There were less repercussions in Second Life, yes, but there was also less keeping them from playing with him – if they really didn't want to, they could just leave the team.

"You know, I'm developing an urge to hit you the next time we meet on Second Life," Li said dryly. "You're being stubborn. Look, Second Life is just that: a second life. Your lives aren't connected to each other if you don't want them to be. Min Gui Wen is not Guileastos," he stated. "How about I use Prince as another example - I would hope that he doesn't act exactly like as he does in Second Life, or else there could be a psychopath on the loose."

"But," Gui Wen said, frowning, as he thought it over, "with the number of swordspeople, thieves, and all the other kinds of jobs that use physical force, probably half of the population who play online games should be arrested for... enjoying it." Ah. He could still see Li's smile, even though he'd tried to hide it by turning his head away. He weighed the idea from the new perspective, considering it.

"Min Gui Wen is not Guileastos," Li repeated. "They're two mostly separate people, connected by a number of things, but they can be two completely different people _if _the player wants them to be." Li's eyes wandered around the library, before he glanced at his watch. "Ah. I've got to go." He stood up from his chair and pushed it back in place after he'd stepped away from it. "I won't be telling anyone about Gui, all right?" he reassured him. "See you later," he said before he walked away.

Gui Wen watched him until he left the library, mulling over the entire conversation.

Wait... If what a person was like in real life could be different to how they were in Second Life, then Li shouldn't have been calling him Gui. It could have been habit, but if Wolf was trying to – Li. _Li _was trying to... Huh. Now that he knew Li was Wolf, and he wasn't panicking as much, he was internally relabeling 'Li' as 'Wolf'. If he was having this problem with... Li, when Li didn't look anything like his character, no wonder he'd been calling him 'Gui'. Which would explain Li's slips then.

But he'd need more time to think about everything – it was a lot to take in.

xOx

The café Gui Wen was in was quiet; not many people were occupying it at that moment and the music playing in the background was barely over speaking level.

"You seem a little exhausted," someone said behind him.

He looked up tiredly from the cup of coffee he had in his hand. "Last night's training was brutal, and I'm never forgiving you for the sheer amount of torture you put us through," he declared. It probably would have sounded more threatening if he had sounded like he actually knew how to inflect his voice, and he hadn't yawned halfway through.

Li didn't look at all scared by his words. "Which is why you said 'I look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow and hope we level up as much as we did today!' just before you logged off?"

He blinked at him, trying to remember if that was what he had said. "I didn't say that."

"Yes, you did." The side of Wolf's mouth was lifting up in a half-smile.

"But," –'_Gui? I_?'- "I don't talk like that." He was fairly sure he hadn't been _that _tired last night to start talking out of character.

"It was something along those lines," Wolf dismissed, waving a hand.

And he still couldn't honestly recall saying anything remotely like that. After a few seconds of trying, Gui Wen gave up and shrugged. "I don't remember saying anything like that, which is just more proof that I needed rest after all that we'd done."

Wolf just chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe. But I'm still not changing the training schedule."

"Damn."

xOx

"_How _do we keep bumping into each other like this?" This time, he'd just finished shopping and was on his way home. His stock of coffee had run out days ago and this was the first time he'd bothered to replace it; the coffee shops were nice, but he liked the taste of his homebrewed coffee better. "The school year hasn't even started yet."

"Perhaps it is our fate for our paths to cross continually," he said, winking. "Our destiny writ in the stars that we are to..." He trailed off, realising what he was saying, who he was saying it to, and _where they were_.

Wolf was staring at him, eyes wide. "Okay, okay, I'll ease up on the training then."

... Well, that was rather embarrassing.

xOx

"You know," Gui Wen said conversationally. Wolf looked up from the book he was reading, startled. For once, he was the one happening across Wolf, rather than the other way around. "Maybe I was right – this is the _fourth_ time we've met in under _two weeks_." He'd been rest deprived at the time, but maybe it wasn't so farfetched. There had to be _some _reason why they kept coincidently bumping into each other without trying to. This was the second time they'd met in the library; it was even the same table.

"I think Prince would be disappointed," Wolf commented, placing his book down gently.

Would he? Gui wasn't getting any more of the mixed signals he'd gotten from Prince like when they'd first met and Prince was making it clear he didn't want any advances from anyone.

He flopped onto the nearest chair, posing with a hand in the air. "Oh, but if it is our _destiny_ to do so," he said, channelling Gui. At least _this _time, he was doing it intentionally.

"Yulian would probably want a word with you," Wolf cut through the speech before he could get going properly.

Ah. "...She'd probably keep on killing me until I was back to level one, wouldn't she?"

Wolf nodded. "Most probably, yes."

Right. _Definitely_ make sure he kept his antics directed at Prince then.

xOx

Gui Wen stared up at the ceiling through the sleeping headset, waiting to fall asleep. It had been an interesting number of days, in both Second Life and real life.

Odd Squad was progressing well, though the tournament was looming closer and closer with each passing day. It had also been interesting seeing Wolf in real life during that time and actually _seeing _him as a person, rather than just a character that he played with. After Wolf had revealed both of them and the conversation that had followed after that, he'd thought that he really could separate 'Gui Wen' from 'Guileastos' with no problems.

Because he couldn't, not completely. He didn't know if it was because they were 'bleeding' into each other, or if he wasn't caring as much about what was acceptable or not anymore. The biggest priority he had in his life now was to _have fun_, since he'd never had the chance to before.

Min Gui Wen was different from Guileastos, but at their centre, they were the same person. There were different expectations on how they were supposed to act, but it was ultimately _his _decision if he adhered to them or not.

He had been a loner before, separated from everyone else because of his IQ and being more interested in reading books than interacting with other people, and while he was still mostly a loner in real life, he wasn't as cut off as he'd used to be.

The room darkened as his eyelids began to droop. He was no longer willing to submit so much to other people's expectations, not unless he actually wanted to. He would act how society wanted him to act in real life, but in Second Life, he would do what he wanted, without having to think if it was 'right' or what other people would think about him.

He would act how he wanted to in Second Life and, while he wasn't a homo, he was being truer to himself doing that.

He drifted off to sleep, anticipating what would happen in today's adventures, a smile on his face.


	2. Investigation

**Summary:** "Min Gui Wen, this is our health clinic's physician, Li Tian Lang."

Not a continuation - this chapter is set in the first chapter.

I ded of studying and exams, so there's probably going to be a lot of mistakes that I haven't caught. If you see any, please tell me. :)

Thank you to all the people who have reviewed and faved this fic. Also a BIG thank you to staggered incite, for pointing out mistakes in the first chapter.

* * *

**Second First Meetings**

By Dark Ice Dragon

Investigation

* * *

"Zhuihun Sonic Arrow!" Three streaks of light shot past Tian Lang a second later, each of them a direct hit on the bat; it barely halted its charge and, when the smoke cleared, it didn't even look like it had been hit in the first place. Not that Gui had high attack power, but he usually left _some_ sort of mark at least.

_'Dammit.'_ It wasn't even a boss and they were having this much trouble with it. Over ten foot tall, jet black from head to toe and horns that were probably as long as their forearms, it certainly _looked_ like it should have been a boss. But they had stumbled across it as it was - they hadn't seen its transformation from a regular monster. Unless someone else had triggered it before them, and they were left with the end result. Either way, whatever it was, they were still struggling to stay alive, let alone kill it.

"Rapid Healing!" he yelled, holding his staff out in front of him. Prince nodded to him in thanks before jumping back into the fray with a heartfelt battle cry. Tian Lang turned his attention back to the rest of the team - Doll had ran out of magic to summon her skulls a while ago so their defence had been weakened but Prince's stubbornness, Lolidragon's kunai and Gui's buffs had kept the bat from coming near them again. All they could do now was wait and hope that they bought enough time for-

"Incoming!" Prince and Lolidragon scrambled out of the way. "Meteor Shower!"

When the debris settled, there was nothing there but craters.

He sighed in relief, letting his arm drop a little bit. If the bat had survived _that_, then they could have only hoped that its life had been depleted enough to be taken down in a few more hits – as far as he could tell, _everyone_ had next to near no magic left for fighting or healing.

Prince and Lolidragon shakily made their way back to them, Prince hobbling, favouring his left leg, and Lolidragon clutching an injured arm.

Tian Lang had enough magic for two small spells, and then he'd be completely out of magic; the two grinned at him after the green light had faded.

Prince stretched slowly before checking the area around them. Thankfully, there weren't any other living things within sight. "Can we eat before trying that again?" Prince asked hopefully.

Everyone, unsurprisingly, agreed straight away.

* * *

Tian Lang absentmindedly rubbed his right shoulder as he walked through the university campus. When they said that Second Life was 99% realistic they _meant_ it, to the point that his body believed that at least _something_ had happened to his shoulder. It wasn't feeling like inch-long fangs had sunk in there though; it felt more like a big bruise, which was considerably more preferable. The good thing was, death only felt slightly worse than that after waking up, if the body 'remembered' it at all – it depended on how long it had been since the incident had happened before waking up.

He caught sight of Wu standing a little distance away from where he was, talking with someone. Tian Lang didn't think he recognised the other person - not that he could be that sure from only seeing their back.

Wu saw him, grinned, and waved him over. Intrigued, he started making his way over to them. When he was nearly there, the person Wu was with turned around.

Tian Lang nearly faltered when he saw the person's face. There was something about it that told him he was familiar with him, but he couldn't place where he'd met him, what was his name or _who_ he actually was. Even though, he was completely certain that he _knew_ the other man.

"Min Gui Wen, this is our health clinician, Li Tian Lang."

That's when it clicked. "Gui?" he repeated, incredulously. He didn't look like the Gui he knew... Except he _did_, if he lengthened his hair and changed his clothing, adding in a cloak as well. And if he had an expression on his face that wasn't casual indifference – which was now descending to annoyance as Gui (Min?) frowned at him.

"Yes?" His voice did sound similar to Gui's, but he had only spoken the one word.

He belatedly realised that he was staring and shook his head. "Never mind."

Min slanted unconvinced eyes at him (Gui had never looked at anyone like that, as far as he could remember) and then shrugged, turning back to Wu to ask a question.

Throughout the conversation, he wondered if he should bring up Second Life, but after every single time Min spoke, he was more and more convinced that he wasn't Gui _and_ that he was. It was... disconcerting, to say the least.

After a couple of minutes, they were saying goodbye to each other and Tian Lang was left to sort his thoughts about the situation.

* * *

"Gui?" The poet's face lit up when he saw who had called him, and bounced over to him.

"How are you this fair day?" Gui asked once he reached him.

Tian Lang brushed his claws through the fur covering his cheek. '_Confused?_' "A little tired, I suppose. You?"

Gui unsuccessfully hid a laugh behind a hand. "Perhaps you should not be playing Second Life tonight?"

"Well..." he delayed. "There was something that I wanted to ask you."

"Oh?" Gui's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Then, please, ask your question so that you may retire to have proper rest – though you already know that my heart already belongs to Prince!"

He chuckled, despite himself. It _did_ sound like that, didn't it? "That's not the kind of question I was going to ask, and I _am_ a married man," he pointed out, giving Gui a look.

Gui just smiled to his response, waiting.

How to ask though? "Are you-" He stopped when someone logged in beside him.

"_Your highness!_" was all the warning Prince got before being tackled from behind.

"_Argh!_ God_damm_it Gui! I just got on!"

"That makes-"

"Get _offa_ me!"

Tian Lang shook his head at the familiar sight, smiling. There wasn't going to be much chance of talking to Gui seriously now. He'd just have to wait for the next opportunity.

* * *

'_So much for the 'next opportunity',_' Tian Lang mused, entering the university building. Somehow, there hadn't been another chance to talk to Gui for one reason or another.

Movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes and he turned his head to focus on it. It was Min-Gui. After watching Gui the night before, Tian Lang was beginning to wonder whether or not Gui had a twin brother. Gui and Min certainly _looked_ alike, barring the hair, but that was something that could be easily changed when a person was initially choosing what their character would look like. But their speech mannerisms and body language were vastly different from each other – not that he really knew Min well enough to say that for definite.

Well, the easiest alternate way from asking directly would be to get to know him.

"Gui!" he called out, walking faster to catch up with him.

The other man paused, and then turned around, a confused look on his face.

... He should probably make sure he was going to say the right name first before he opened his mouth.

* * *

"What's up?"

He glanced up from the plate he was staring at. It was Lolidragon, looking a little concerned.

"Hmm? It's nothing."

Lolidragon snorted. She grabbed a piece of food from one of the plates in front of him and took a bite. "Doesn't look like it."

Tian Lang mulled over the benefits of telling her, and then sighed. "I may have met someone on Second life in real life," he hedged. He still wasn't entirely sure yet, and he doubted Gui would want other people to know. Maybe. _Gui_ might have, but Min didn't seem so inclined about talking about himself.

"Oooh," she said, leaning forward, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Who?"

"Lolidragon..."

"Ah, fine." She flapped a hand, dismissing her previous question. "So what's the problem?"

He sighed, looking up to the ceiling. "He's... not like the person they are on Second Life."

She hummed, taking another bite. She was quiet as she chewed. "Is anyone exactly like they are in Second Life and real life?" she finally asked hypothetically.

Tian Lang shook his head. "No. But..." He sighed again, in frustration. "If they didn't look so alike, I wouldn't have this problem – barring their looks, they seem to have _nothing_ in common."

She shrugged. "He could be very good at acting."

So which life was real and which one was the lie?

"But really," she continued, waving the hand with food in it, "does it matter?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it when he realised that he didn't have an answer for that. Tian Lang leaned back on the chair, thinking it over. No, it didn't matter. And he was thinking about this far too much when he wasn't even sure if they were the same person.

Lolidragon tilted her head at him. "Came to a decision?"

"Of sorts." He would continue to observe and talk to Min and Gui in the meantime and _then_ make his decision, if one needed to be made, once he concluded if they were different people or not.

Now finished with her food, Lolidragon reached over pick up something else. "Good." There was a pause as she plopped down on a chair, and then took one of the plates instead and put what she'd picked up on it. She looked at him curiously. "So, do you have a training plan for us?"

Ah. He knew there had been something he'd been meaning to do.

* * *

Tian Lang was heading towards the clinic when he saw Min standing outside of the elevator, watching the number creep lower above the door.

"Gui – Min," he corrected himself hastily. It was still too much of a habit saying 'Gui' first, but at least he was catching himself faster now.

"Morning," Min said, tilting his head slightly in acknowledgement.

He didn't get a chance to say anything else as the elevator 'dinged' and the door slid open. Min stepped into it and Tian Lang averted his eyes before it seemed like he was staring again.

He needed to catch Min where he couldn't get away so easily, Tian Lang mused.

* * *

It was wet. Extremely so. And he hadn't brought a hat. Tian Lang grumbled to himself, hurrying towards the bus stop, using a hand to shield his glasses from the rain, hoping his bus would come soon. As soon as he reached shelter, he shook his head vigorously, sending droplets of water flying everywhere. And that was another habit he'd picked up from playing Second Life; drying yourself meant completely different movements when you were covered entirely in fur.

"Sorry," he said to the lone person with him, looking up. The point of finding shelter was to stay dry, not to be splashed by other people. ...Oh. The other person was Min.

Min waved a hand at his apology. "I just got here myself."

They lapsed into silence, Min looking down the road for the bus, Tian Lang also doing while watching Min.

"What bus are you waiting for?" he ventured, after attempting to dry his glasses with drenched clothing. The water was mostly spread evenly now, and he could see slightly better – cars weren't moving splashes of colour any more at least.

"The twelve."

Which wasn't his bus. Well, there went that idea. There were limits to how many times he could bump into Min at university without it seeming like he was stalking him or actively seeking him out.

"Min..." he started. Min somehow heard him over the pouring rain and turned his head to look at him. Time to change tactics. Observing him wouldn't tell him much and trying to talk to him about general things –if he ever got the chance to actually talk to him _properly_- wouldn't answer his question either. "Do you play Second Life?"

Min blinked at him, mystified. "...Yes?"

It was a start. He opened his mouth to ask another question when the number twelve trundled around the corner. Tian Lang sighed. There seemed to be some force that was adamant to not let him figure out whether Min was Gui any time soon.

He waved to Gui as he got on the bus and hoped that his own bus would come quickly.

* * *

Tian Lang wandered through the library, no specific topic in mind. He could have gone to the canteen, but that had an entirely different atmosphere to the one that he wanted at the moment. Maybe he could try finding... His thoughts trailed off when he saw Min sitting at one of the tables hidden at the back of the library, reading a thick tome. It wasn't near the literature section, but from what he'd realised about Min, he wasn't much of a social person, to say the least.

After the last miniature conversation they'd had in real life, he at least knew that Min played Second Life. As for him being Gui however...

Being direct had worked far better than trying to see small hints of Gui in Min.

Decision made, he started walking towards Min. "Gui?"

* * *

"Ow!" Gui looked up at him, hand protectively covering the spot where he'd been cuffed. "Why'd you hit me, Wolf?" he wailed.

"That," he said, delicately, "was for being stubborn."

Gui stiffened, staring at him with wide eyes.

And that would be the only indication he could give of knowing Gui in real life, until he came to decide whether to keep the two lives separate or mixed.

-'_Wolf? Gui? Are you on?'-_ he answered Prince, glancing at Gui.

-'We're both on,'-

-'_Finally! You're both on late.'-_ There was both curiosity and a little bit of worry behind that statement.

He did actually have a reason for staying up late and he could guess why Min had taken a while to come on. _-'I was up making some changes to the training plan.'-_ He could _hear_ Prince's grin. -'_We're by the south gate.'-_  
He didn't get a reply back, so he turned his attention back to Gui, who was eyeing him in confusion. "You're not going to...?"

-'Sweet!'-

-'Okay, meet you there.'-

Tian Lang shook his head. "It's your choice and I'll respect whichever one you make." He smiled at him softly. "That was just a one-off."

It seemed like he'd made Gui speechless again. "I... Thank you."

He raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

Gui looked uncertain, opening his mouth and then shut it again, shaking his head.

"Anyway," he said, turning, "we shouldn't keep the others waiting for long."

There was a muffled snicker behind him. Curious, Tian Lang looked over his shoulder. "That's if they're _at_ the south gate."

That… was a good point. Better ask the others where they were before he and Gui started going anywhere.

* * *

Gui wasn't acting like Gui. He was still waxing poetical about Prince and complimenting him at every chance he could, but it seemed... off. More forced, and lacking a lot of the energy that he normally had. Prince had noticed and was shooting Gui quick glances whenever he thought he wouldn't looking, not sure what to make of the change.

He couldn't do anything about it though. He didn't think pulling Gui to the side would help – what could he say to him? 'You're acting out of character' or 'Stop thinking so much'? Doing that would probably make Gui even more conscious about what he was doing. It was because of him that Gui was like that in the first place, so he could possibly make it even worse if a comment came from him.

The only thing he could do was hope that Min worked out what he wanted to do soon.

* * *

"Wolf?" Tian Lang looked back nervously, fighting the urge to take a step back; Prince only smiled like that either before they were going into a difficult fight, or when he was already drenched in their enemy's blood.

"Yes?"

"What did you do?"

"...Do?" he echoed. The smile didn't budge; if anything, it got a touch wider. "I don't follow."

"Gui's been acting funny and he keeps looking at you."

It didn't _seem_ like jealousy. Much. It was more along the lines of protectiveness. "I gave him something to think about and he's still puzzling out the answer."

"Hmm."

He was _very_ glad when Gui entered the room at that moment and proceeded to throw himself at Prince with his usual exuberance.

* * *

Gui sat next to him bonelessly with a heartfelt sigh, sweeping his cloak out of the way first. There was a few more seconds of movement as Gui tried sitting back on the tree, before he settled on leaning on his hands instead.

With how Gui had walked up to him and sat down... "You seem tired."

Gui ran his fingers through a portion of his hair, staring up at the leaves above them. "You ever made lesson plans?" he asked, still not looking at him.

Tian Lang raised an eyebrow at the question. So that was what Min had decided. "You're preparing already?"

Gui shrugged slowly. "Why not?"

A fair enough point. "You _do_ remember that I'm a physician?"

"So... No."

"No," he confirmed. They were quiet over the next couple of minutes, just listening to the birds chirping and feeling the wind blowing through the clearing. It probably wasn't going to get old any time soon just seeing how much effort had gone into making Second Life as realistic as possible. "What did you do when you were a student? Maybe you could emulate that," he suggested.

The reply was a snort. "I was extremely bored," Gui said dryly. He half-laughed softly, shaking his head. "I know what not to do, so I guess that's a start."

He chuckled at the comment. "Better than nothing," he agreed.

They stayed like that in companionable silence until the others logged on.

* * *

Prince wasn't giving him sideways glances anymore, which was far more relieving than he thought it would be. With Gui being more or less how he used to (apart from toning down his speech slightly), things were back to normal.

As normal as it got when you were a member of Odd Squad anyway.

* * *

--.-- I think Gui's speech sounds really off.

_Really_ finished now - unless Lucathia Rykatu somehow pokes the plotbunny again.


End file.
